Great Mortality throttgh Famine. 407 internal emptiness and great languor ; in fact my last remains of strength were fast ebbing away. It was then that I had written my last wishes, and was waiting for evening to shut up all in a tin box that had contained my tobacco, and write the Arab address to Consul Hansal.

It is incredible and impossible to describe the thoughts that traversed my brain during that night ! Death had never before ap})roaclied me so closely, neither in the many combats I had fought, nor during all the treacheries and plots against my life. And now I must die inglorioush in the middle of a river, by the death met with by thousands and thousands of Jelabba in Xiam-Niam, or the scorching deserts of Darfour. Thanks to the attentive nursing of my good friend Marno I was greatly restored in a few hours. It had not been only hunger, but chiefly moral depression that had prostrated me. Victuals were distributed equally to the crew of the Sofia, and twenty-five men were left on board to take her to the woods of Ghudera to provide the vessel with fuel, while the Bordeen forced a way through the bars to go and meet the slep and the nugger, which we had abandoned. At 1.30 we reached Jinan Bey's nugger, and freed it from the flotsam which hindered its adAance ; we then let it descend the current to join the Sofia.

York was carried on the rest of the day without interruption.

Janvorii 6th. — In the morning we started, and two hours later arrived at the spot where the captain of the Sofia had so cruelly abandoned forty-three men. People were sent out in all directions to seek the wanderers, thirty- eight of whom they succeeded in finding, but in a condition that excited our compassion. The rest Ave believe to be lost or dead.